Union Minister of State Giriraj Singh on Sunday said that religion can protect us only if we do the same for it, stressing that the Hindus need to increase their population in the country.

“People of the country are demanding a Ram temple, but how will a Ram temple be made if there are no Ram-bhakts in the country,” he said while addressing a programme at Devbad area of Saharanpur district.

“The Hindu society needs to increase their population, it has been continuously decreasing in eight states of then country,” the minister of state for MSME said.

At the time of partition, there were 22 per cent Hindus in Pakistan which has now decreased to 1 percent, while in India the Hindu population at that time was 90 per cent and Muslims constituted 10 per cent, but now the population of Muslims has gone up to 24 per cent while that of Hindus have declined to 76 per cent, he said.